Machinery and Equipment Editing and Proofreading Services

A machine is designed to do one thing, and within a month of installation somebody has used it to do something else — because it was nearly right for that job, and the alternative was waiting for a machine that does not exist. This is not misuse in the sense of recklessness. It is the ordinary behaviour of people solving problems with the equipment in front of them, and the manufacturer's only opportunity to influence it is a section of a handbook.

We edit what machinery manufacturers produce — instruction handbooks and their intended use sections, foreseeable misuse and prohibited use documentation, residual risk and warning documentation, technical file and conformity documentation content, installation, commissioning and lifting instructions, operation and setting instructions, guard, interlock and safety device documentation, training requirements for operators, decommissioning and disposal guidance, and specification and capability documentation for buyers. Our editors work on the section that says what the machine is for.

The intended use and foreseeable misuse statement is where a machine's boundaries are either communicated or left to be discovered, and its failure is describing capability without limits. A handbook stating that the machine processes sheet material up to 3 mm has said nothing about the material somebody will actually try. We work through these so intended use is stated with the specific parameters that define it — the material, the thickness range, the dimensions, the duty cycle, the environment — and then, crucially, what is outside each one; so the foreseeable misuses are listed as things people will actually attempt rather than as abstract prohibitions, since "do not use for purposes other than those intended" prevents nothing and "do not use this machine to cut stainless — it will cut it, and the blade will shatter" prevents something; so each prohibition carries the consequence, because a rule with a reason survives a supervisor who wants the job done; so residual risks are stated where the operator meets them rather than in a list at the front, given that the risk of ejected material belongs beside the instruction to open the door; so the modifications that void the conformity are named specifically, as removing an interlock to speed up loading is the single most common alteration; so the environment limits are given as numbers, including temperature, dust and vibration; and so the training requirement states what an operator must be able to do rather than that they must be trained. Handbooks written this way influence what happens on the shop floor.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including designs, handbooks and technical documentation. We are editors rather than machinery safety or conformity specialists, and we offer no view on design, safety or compliance. What we can do is make the boundaries specific enough to be respected.